Divine Rune

It was the 10020th year of the Divine Calendar.

On a bright sunny day, a handsome youth clad in white was seen sitting atop a steep cliffside. Around him, a strange icy mist enveloped the entire cliff in a diameter of 1 Li. The youth in white, with two strands of hair hanging down his from his forehead, while the rest was tied up at the back, sat cross-legged in a lotus position with his eyes closed.

His looks were more feminine than manly, but a graceful and icy aura naturally emitted from his entire being. As he sat on the cliffside, the icy mist surrounding him was slowly being drawn into his body.

It was thanks to his unique cultivation technique, as well as his own talents. The technique had special requirements in order to cultivate it. One, the user must be talented enough, had a strong will, and two; did not have a Divine Rune.

What was a Divine Rune? It is a rune that everyone in the world was born with. It could be anywhere on the human body, able to be hidden at will by its owner. It was similar to a vein or tendon in the human body but was actually just a symbol.

By having a Divine Rune, one would be able to start cultivating after awakening one at the age of sixteen and begin the journey to immortality. It was the dream of many in the world, with the powerful ones being able to destroy mountains with a single palm, and split the sea with a wave of their hand.

A Divine Rune was a symbol that was also the basis of all cultivation in this world. There was no dantian, but meridians did exist. However, everything was up to the Divine Rune. Without cultivating the Divine Rune, one would forever be a mortal, never able to achieve immortality.

Divine Runes were split into different grades. With Human, Spirit, Mystic, Earth, Heaven, and Divine grades, further split into Low Tier, Middle Tier, High Tier, and Top Tier within each grade.

A Divine Rune enabled a mortal to create a Chess Board which is made up of sixteen Chess Pieces, within their body. The Chess Pieces represented the King, Queen, Bishops, Knights, Rooks, and Pawns. Once a mortal has awakened the Chess Board, they would naturally be the King, while able to pass on other pieces to another person, bringing them under his or her control.

Of course, this was not complete control, as long as a Chess Piece didn't try to harm the King in any way, they were completely free as any other person. Though, not everyone was born a King.

In a world with billions of mortals, only one in one million people were born as a King. The remaining were born with other pieces such as the Pawn, Bishop, Queen, and the rest. Those born with the power of the King didn't have any advantage over the other Chess Pieces, only their ability to bring under the other Pieces was all they could do.

Whether one was born a King or not, didn't have a huge impact on the journey to cultivation. Of course, this didn't mean that they were insignificant, since they were so rare, many mighty and famous sects try to recruit those special people as soon as they awaken, grooming them from a young age in order to make their sect stronger.

The handsome youth in white was a person without a Divine Rune. How was this possible in a world where everyone was born with a Divine Rune? The youth could only thank his ex-fiancee for this.

"Jing Mengyi, you and your family didn't think that my Top Tier Human grade Divine Rune that you took from me, actually helped me instead." the youth in white, named Yan Lenglei muttered under his breath, with his soothing voice that was neither high nor low pitched.

The beginning of this story would have to go back to that day a month ago. It all began with Yan Lenglei and his ex-fiancee Jing Mengyi.

Under a peach blossom tree, Yan Lenglei played a famous song with his flute. Beside him, Jing Mengyi sat down quietly and poured him a cup of tea, once he finished playing his piece.

"Lenglei, have some tea." Jing Mengyi said, in her soft voice. Sitting down, Yan Lenglei's expression didn't change as he picked up the cup of tea that was spiked with a poisonous powder, used to slow down the full development of his Divine Rune, enabling Jing Mengyi to steal it.

His ex-fiancee Jing Mengyi, was a beautiful girl of the same age as him. Long ago, before even his father was born, his grandfather had been sworn brothers with Jing Mengyi's grandfather, promising marriage between their children if they were of opposite genders.

Since his own father and Jing Mengyi's father were both men, the promise could only be made in this generation. Only then, the two grandfathers didn't think their own descendants were filled with filthy intentions when making contact with Yan Lenglei, he was known to be talented in everything, but had an ice-cold face at all times.

Not only was he talented, but his father had also awakened a powerful High Tier Human Grade Divine Rune, everyone in the entire Blackcloud City, expected him, as Yan Tianxian's son, and a young master of one of Blackcloud City's four great families, to be even more talented than his father.

This was where the plot to steal his Divine Rune began. For a few years, Jing Mengyi had poured tea for Yan Lenglei, and he knew of her and her father's plot even before they had even executed it.

Even though he knew it, why didn't he act upon it and went according to their plans? It was because long ago when he was only three years old, Yan Lenglei had wandered off on his own near the mansion, and sensed something in the ground by accident.

It was as if it were calling for him, even though he was only three, he was intelligent and began to dig the spot on his own. Even while his hands bled, his expression didn't change, as he dug until he reached his goal.

There, he found a strange rock that was perfectly round, but oval in shape like a pebble. It looked like a regular stone, but to Yan Lenglei, it gave off a different vibe, he didn't know what it was at the time and only discovered the secret when he was five years old.

When he returned home that day, his parents were shocked, their three-year-old son came home with an ice-cold expression as he always had since birth, while his hands bled, and dirt and mud were seen all over his clothes.

Moving time along, two years later, Yan Lenglei had cut his own wrist and poured his blood over the stone. As a little amount dripped and seeped throughout the stone, a slight reaction was seen.

He knew his thoughts were right, as he continued letting his blood drip over the strange stone. Soon enough, as he began to pale, and his body grew weak from the loss of blood, the strange stone shook and changed completely.

It became pitch-black in color, while a strange bright red rune was seen on the surface. The strange rock instantly shrunk and turned into a beam of light that shot into his forehead, disappearing from its spot.

In an instant, Yan Lenglei learned of its secrets, while his wound closed, and blood that was missing filled itself inside his body. The strange stone held a secret and unique cultivation technique that only allowed those without a Divine Rune to cultivate.

If one were to successfully cultivate in the technique, a brand new Divine Rune of a higher grade than even the mythical Divine Grade would be born in the person's body immediately.

With that, the person's cultivation and talents would skyrocket, enabling them to become a powerful immortal that could shake even the heaven and earth itself. After learning of its secret, Yan Lenglei kept it to himself for many years, and never exposed it to anyone.

Only his best friend Mo Jidong, who was the adoptive son of one of the four great families of Blackcloud City, the Mu family knew of his secret. His best friend who he had grown up with since childhood, was dropped off at the doorsteps of the Mu family, only his name was written in blood, while a necklace was left around his neck.

Since childhood, only Yan Lenglei was more talented than Mo Jidong in the entire Blackcloud City. The two of them were known as the Golden Children of Blackcloud City at a young age, and nobody didn't know of them.

One was always clad in white, with an ice-cold expression that made him seem like a paralyzed person, while the other was always dressed in black, with a slightly angry expression at all times.

For some reason, both of them always had a strange expression no matter the occasion. Whether it was a wedding or the birth of a new life, their expressions never changed.

Of course, Yang Lenglei knew the real reason behind Mo Jidong's expression. When they were little, they accidentally discovered the secret of the necklace around Mo Jidong's neck.

Inside the necklace, stored fragmented memories of the latter's real parents which also included the reason they were forced to abandon him, as well as a cultivation technique made just for him.

The technique was a Body Refining technique, which was one of the two pathways of cultivation in this world. Qi Refining and Body Refining. Qi Refining was where one cultivated Qi and Spiritual attacks, while Body Refining cultivated the body.

Qi Refining was common and much easier and faster to cultivate, hence it was more popular. Not only that, Body Refining techniques were scarce and impossible to find in a small city such as Blackcloud City.

They were extremely painful to cultivate, however, in exchange, a Body Refiner was much more powerful than a Qi Refiner of the same stage, and could even fight or defeat someone a stage above!

What were the realms of cultivation? They were the Awakening, Noble, Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquess, Duke, Sage, Saint, King, and Emperor realm. Each realm had nine stages in between, while the Sage and Saint realm only had four.

Speaking of Body Refiners, many of them could even kill someone of the same stage with a single blow! Even though it was so powerful, many couldn't withstand the pain that would come with Body Refining.

Mo Jidong's cultivation technique was as such. In fact, it was of the same grade as Yan Lenglei's technique, allowing him to develop his own Divine Rune into a grade higher than the Divine Grade.

With this technique, and also his inherited memories, Mo Jidong's mindset changed even though he was only five years old, hence the reason why his expression was always the same, even in front of his foster parents.

As best friends that were even closer than blood brothers, they both had similar circumstances, and would never betray the other. The secret was shared between them, and not a third party would ever know of their shared secret.

Back to the story, Yan Lenglei learned of Jing Mengyi and her father's plans when he was thirteen years old. He played the fool, allowing them to go ahead with their plan while sneering at them since he was actually benefiting from their plan.

Even though it would be excruciatingly painful for his Divine Rune to be removed, and he may even die from the process, Yan Lenglei believed in himself and drank the tea Jing Mengyi poured for him every day for three years.

On the day of their awakening ceremony, both Yan Lenglei and Mo Jidong awakened Top Tier Human Grade Divine Runes. One day, the plan was set in motion, as Yan Lenglei was 'ambushed' by the Jing family father and daughter, as they extracted his Divine Rune via a special method that was banned throughout the entire world.

Not even the Demons, who were extremely powerful and more talented than humans approved of such methods. While the two races were not enemies, the two sides fought against each other regularly for resources. Instead, both races had a true enemy, a powerful race from another world, given the names of the Otherworld race, were the true enemies that threatened the world.

Forgetting about this for now, as Yan Lenglei's Divine Rune was being extracted, his entire body shook from the excruciating pain that shook even the depths of his soul. As beads of sweat dripped from his forehead, and blood poured like rain from his spine, Yan Lenglei's paralyzed ice-cold face didn't change.

Instead, he glared at the father and daughter pair as they told him common lines that were very cliche. When they left, Yan Lenglei was left on the ground on his own. Only when Mo Jidong came out of hiding once they had left, did he receive help.

Mo Jidong quickly carried him away, tending to his injuries, without letting their families know. With his cultivation at the Second Stage of the Awakening Realm, it was easy for him to carry Yan Lenglei away.

As for Mo Jidong's cultivation, he had started cultivating in the technique as soon as the Divine Rune was awakened. In just a month, his cultivation had already reached the Second Stage of the Awakening Realm, which was unprecedented in the entire kingdom, let alone the Blackcloud City.

His cultivation technique was special even amongst the Body Refining techniques. It was a horrible technique called the Universal Demon Scripture, containing a cultivation method in the ways of the Demons, Buddha, and even Demonic Beasts, such as Dragons and many other Mythical Beasts.

Since it was so powerful, the pain he would experience was obviously great. Just by cultivating in the Awakening Realm, which was the least painful stage of the technique, the pain he experienced was no less than that of which Yan Lenglei had experienced when his Divine Rune was extracted.

In exchange, his body was extremely powerful, but there was nobody to compare against, hence he didn't know how strong he was exactly. As for Yan Lenglei, his injuries took an entire month to recover from, before he started to cultivate.